THE chant spread around Eastlands moments after Geovanni had made the net bulge to leave Manchester United’s defence as red-faced as their manager.

“Going down, going down, going down,” sang the home fans at their neighbours from across the city as they looked forward to the unlikely scenario of topping the Premier League table.

If aliens had landed on the centre circle after the final whistle, they could have been forgiven for thinking Sven-Goran Eriksson’s City were the dominant force in Manchester, rather than Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

Brazilian midfielder Geovanni’s 25-yard winner gave City victory over their bitter derby rivals, plus a 100% record with no goals conceded, while United languish off the pace of the title race with just two points from their first three games.

Martin Jol’s head was being called for before Tottenham thumped Derby on Saturday – as Spurs are now above United in the table, will Ferguson’s job now be under threat?

Of course it won’t – although joking aside, with Wayne Rooney and Louis Saha injured and Carlos Tevez so far struggling for match sharpness, the United boss has left himself open to criticism for leaving his side short of firepower after selling Alan Smith to Newcastle and Giuseppe Rossi to Villareal.

As was the case in the Old Trafford draw with Reading which opened their title defence, United created nearly all the chances but failed to put them away.

They dominated play in the opening half-hour, Nani testing Kasper Schmeichel’s nerves after just four minutes when he forced a double save from the rookie City keeper.

Talk at Eastlands recently has been of the need for a new man in nets, with the son of United and City legend Peter not considered experienced enough to be a Premier League first choice.

But the short shotstopper must have felt an inch taller after he blocked Nani’s shot from the left-hand edge of the area, then pounced to catch the Portuguese ace’s header across goal on the rebound.

The winger was giving City a torrid time and on 17 minutes he was again denied by Schmeichel as the keeper held his shot from the edge of the box.

Three minutes later Nani’s squared ball to Paul Scholes in the penalty box was turned out for a corner by City right-back Vedran Corluka, while on 25 minutes an audacious flick from the winger beat Geovanni and sent Patrice Evra racing towards goal, only for the French left-back to slice his shot wide after beating Corluka to the ball.

Michael Carrick sent Carlos Tevez almost clear on goal in the 27th minute, but the immense Micah Richards recovered to catch the Argentine and cleared the danger with a crunching slide tackle.

But with nearly half an hour gone City began to find their way into the game and Michael Johnson, clearly feeling lucky after his screamer against Derby County last week to end a home goal drought stretching back to January 1 for City, saw a rasping shot from 25 yards sail over.

Then on 31 minutes the breakthrough came, against the run of play, when City’s other Brazilian midfielder Elano squared to his compatriot Geovanni 25 yards out.

There seemed little on but he took two steps towards a static Nemanja Vidic and took aim, his shot deflecting off Vidic and into the net to trigger an eruption of gleeful noise across Eastlands.

United fought back immediately, though, Richards having to block at the feet of both Tevez and Nani.

But the goal had given City more confidence and Geovani, Elano and Emile Mpenza – on for the injured Valeri Bojinov – all had efforts blocked before the break.

But the last five minutes of the half belonged to United as they attacked furiously. Richards was being hailed by City fans yesterday as having won the game for them with as impressive a display as any centre-back is likely to give this season.

He had to be alert after Corluka lost Ryan Giggs – who had switched wings with Nani – Richards blocking as the former Wales captain whipped a dangerous ball across goal in the direction of Tevez.

Another Giggs delivery saw City captain Richard Dunne getting in the way, before Nani struck a 30-yarder wide and Dunne again denied Giggs as the winger ran onto a defence-splitting ball from Evra.

Two minutes after the restart Vidic almost atoned for his first-half clanger when he rose above the City defence from a Giggs corner, but the Serbian defender crashed his header against the bar.

City were always going to have their work cut out defending such a slim lead against the champions, and four minutes later another United corner forced Corluka and Didi Hamann to do some desperate clearing of their lines.

Then it was Richards’ turn to again save City with a last-ditch clearance, sliding in to turn the ball over the bar after Giggs once more left Corluka trailing and flashed a grasscutter across City’s box.

As United sought desperately for an equaliser, Tevez foxed Richard Dunne by flicking it square to Scholes in the box, but as the midfielder bore down on goal he shot wide under pressure from the advancing Richards.

Chris Eagles replaced a wearing Nani with half an hour left, and the youngster almost had an instant impact when his cross-shot flashed across City’s six-yard box, the advancing Tevez unable to redirect the ball home as it zipped wide.

Then it was City posing the threat on the counter-attack as winger Martin Petrov played Geovanni through with only last man Evra and the keeper to beat.

Geovanni had Mpenza in support, but the Brazilian knocked it too far with his firs touch as Evra dealt with the danger.

The home side had a chance to inflict more damage when Owen Hargreaves bundled Geovanni over outside the box midway through the half, but the midfielder hit the direct free-kick straight at Van Der Sar.

With 18 minutes left Eagles left Javier Garrido trailing with a searing run down the right wing, but could only poke his shot into the arms of Schmeichel.

With 14 minutes left Ricards made a rare mistake as an attempted clearance fell into the path of Tevez on the egde of the box, but the Argentine fired wide of Schmeical’s near post.

As City again began to find their feet Corluka failed to double the lead when his effort from 30 yards, which had looked goal-bound, failed to drop under Van Der Sar’s bar with the keeper stranded.

Mpenza also missed from long range, but the second half ended as the first had, with constant pressure from United as they forced corner after corner.

And one of those corners came agonisingly close to forcing an equaliser for United, the ball beating everybody in the six-yard box except for Tevez.

His diving header flew inches wide to give City a reprieve and leave Manchester United still searching for the first win of their title defence.